Just want to thank richsadams for all you've posted here, which has been very helpful. I finally did a fresh install on my laste 2010 11 inch MBA and seem to be up to 5 hours battery now with light internet use and email with wifi. I had been down to 2.5 hours or so with wifi on, and although the supplemental 10.8.2 update definitely helped, I was still realistically only getting 3 - 3.5 hours with wifi. I haven't reinstalled Flash though, so that needs to be factored in.

Before the fresh install, when I did the SMC firmware update (to 1.67f9) on restarting the computer the fans went absolultely mad for around 20 seconds, and I started to pray it hadn't all gone horribly wrong. Thanfully they then settled down. Battery life seemed worse after the SMC update for me though, until now having done the fresh install. I think I'm now getting pretty much what I was getting with SL, if not more. So although it's a pain to do, a fresh install really has helped on this machine. I'm now down to 90% and 5hrs 43 remaining - so nice to see these figures after such a long time!!

Just want to thank richsadams for all you've posted here, which has been very helpful. I finally did a fresh install on my laste 2010 11 inch MBA and seem to be up to 5 hours battery now with light internet use and email with wifi. I had been down to 2.5 hours or so with wifi on, and although the supplemental 10.8.2 update definitely helped, I was still realistically only getting 3 - 3.5 hours with wifi. I haven't reinstalled Flash though, so that needs to be factored in.

Before the fresh install, when I did the SMC firmware update (to 1.67f9) on restarting the computer the fans went absolultely mad for around 20 seconds, and I started to pray it hadn't all gone horribly wrong. Thanfully they then settled down. Battery life seemed worse after the SMC update for me though, until now having done the fresh install. I think I'm now getting pretty much what I was getting with SL, if not more. So although it's a pain to do, a fresh install really has helped on this machine. I'm now down to 90% and 5hrs 43 remaining - so nice to see these figures after such a long time!!

You're quite welcome Coach. Wish I could take credit but it was the Apple Tech that contacted me back in early August that suggested a fresh install. It didn't work at the time, but after trying it again with 10.8.2 things returned to normal, much like yours. It is a PIA, but worth it to get my MacBook back!

Hope they sort this out for the folks that are still having issues ASAP.

My 4th MBA has a working trackpad, a good screen, and, more importantly, OK battery life. 6-8 hours on the first cycle, this should get better in a few.

Interesting, they replaced the Boot ROM version, see pic. One on the left is the new MBA:

I had three defective MBAs from the factory, yet I bet some users might not have noticed two of them being flawed (energy and screen). Some things are not so obvious. I still recommend contacting Apple and following their steps to the letter. They will be the same, essentially, as those advocated my myself, adams, so on.

I think Apple is not interested in solving the Problem, just making Money with new products... My battery is dead because of the massive draining since ml. 78% health today.. Yesterday it was 82% and a week ago it was 92%

I find it interesting that at first I thought the 10.8.2 update really did improve my battery life on my Macbook Pro.

But then last week I got a 10.8.2 supplemental update that seems to have hurt those battery life gains? I have found that just not using Notifications and turning off some other stuff through terminal hacks makes the biggest difference in batt. life. I just think Mountain Lion has become bloated with back ground services and those of course can make a difference when added up. ML has been a big disappointment to me as I typically ran a Virtual Machine with my Macbook Pro running Windows 7 and between that setup drawing battery life and OS X increasing its draw. I have been forced to abandon the Virtual machine because of the battery life issues.

It is only my opinion but it seems that OS X has turned the corner from being a efficient OS to being a OS filled with bloated features and services trying to make itself more palatable to IOS users. I would not mind so much if users like myself with no interest in syncing, or moving between Apple devices could turn off these services.

I recently bought a 13" macbook air (i7, 256gb SS). When I first turned on the computer, I noticed the battery draining rather quickly. Again, this was on startup without charging at all. I have since fully charged my battery but have not used the computer yet. I have a few questionsL

Can I expect battery life to be better after a few cyles?

The battery drained fastest while video chatting on Skype. Does Skype video chatting take up signifcant battery life?

Is the battery life issue specifically related to UPGRADGING to mountain lion? Mine came pre-installed with ML. Should I run into any issues?

This is going to sound really weird, but after the latest java update my battery life greatly increased...I have no idea why.

That is interesting. The latest update actually removes the Java applet plug-ins from all installed browsers. It looks like Apple is no longer going to support Java...understandable since Java presents a number of security vulnerabilities which have been exploited previously. If you run into a website that requires it you have go to the developer, Oracle, to download it. So the onus is on them to keep it current.

The update also removed the "Java Preferences" app from OS X Utilities.

So if there were some sort of Java Runtime app executing on your MacBook, getting rid of it could certainly improve battery life.

Due to the security issues I've always disabled Java (not to be confused with JavaScript) but some folks need it for VPN and other activity.

I recently bought a 13" macbook air (i7, 256gb SS). When I first turned on the computer, I noticed the battery draining rather quickly. Again, this was on startup without charging at all. I have since fully charged my battery but have not used the computer yet. I have a few questionsL

Can I expect battery life to be better after a few cyles?

The battery drained fastest while video chatting on Skype. Does Skype video chatting take up signifcant battery life?

Is the battery life issue specifically related to UPGRADGING to mountain lion? Mine came pre-installed with ML. Should I run into any issues?

If I do find battery issues, which fixes have worked?

Thank you.

Welcome! Your conclusion is correct, the battery issues folks have posted about here were almost all incurred after upgrading their MacBooks to Mountain Lion in the past couple of months. Recent OS X updates have resolved the issue for most but not all. Since your MacBook is new and came with Mountain Lion installed the odds of your running into any problems are very small.

According to the specs for your system you should get somewhere around 7 hours of battery life. That's with basic usage, web browsing, etc. The caveat is how you're using it. The more demand an application has on the system, the more power is required. So yes, Skype, video chatting in particular, will drain your battery as fast as almost anything else (with the exception of video editing possibly using more). You should not expect to get anywhere near 7 hours of battery life while using video chat.

Yes, battery life will improve slightly after a few cycles. There is some housekeeping going on in the background initially including indexing of your entire hard drive and it takes time for readings to "settle in".

If, however, you do not get the expected battery life - somewhere between 6 and 7 hours under normal use (excluding heavy demand such as video chat, etc.) you can try resetting the SMC.

If that doesn't fully resolve it, there's no need to try other methods mentioned here for earlier MacBooks. It's under warranty so take it back to Apple and have them run their diagnostics to see if there's an issue.

The chances are extremely good that you won't have to ever worry about it.

Same as richadams wrote, and I wote it a while back as well. The Sandy Bridge architecure enters mid range consumption for GPU for stuff like Skype Video, so 2 Amps range or 2000 mAh. That's easily 3 hrs battery life instead of 6-7.

Also I believe Flash fires these GPUs for no reason, and does explain drain as I notice it on a healthy system. You my have stopepd fiddlign with a pic, or video, but the GPU could still be on mid range consumption.

MBPs are bad for that at this moment because when that happends the main GPU fires up and that burns watts in no time.

Also I believe Flash fires these GPUs for no reason, and does explain drain as I notice it on a healthy system. You my have stopepd fiddlign with a pic, or video, but the GPU could still be on mid range consumption.

MBPs are bad for that at this moment because when that happends the main GPU fires up and that burns watts in no time.

Hey Chris, I've got a fix for that...don't install Flash! After living without it for a couple of years now on our gen-one iPad I was amazed how rarely I ever needed it...or missed it. I've never installed it on my MacBook and life is still good. Just a thought.

Agreed however...even though I used to build entire websites in it, Flash is some nasty business. Even Adobe's abandoned it for mobile devices. That's one thing SJ was absolutely right about. Flash's days are past and it belongs in the dust bin with 5.25" floppy disks and 8 track tapes.

Huh. I also have Java VisualVM (Visual Virtual Machine) in my Utilities Apps on my MacBook Air - although it's hidden and only available via Spotlight.

Based on some Googling it's apparently a diagnostic tool that allows developers and admins to monitor and troubleshoot Java applications. So it might be something Apple would use to review any issues on MacBooks, but that's just a WAG on my part.

I just now noticed that the Java Preferences App is still in my Utilities after the latest update as well. Both of those apps are gone on my iMac. ???

Attempting to open either app brings up a message asking to install Java SE 6 runtime. That tells me that Java itself is still unavailable which is fine.

I'd say leave it, no harm done and it might be needed at some point. However maybe someone more knowledgable will chime in becuase I've never worked in Java and that one's beyond my paygrade.

Related Articles

This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only.
Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided; every potential issue may involve several factors not detailed in the conversations captured in an electronic forum and Apple can therefore provide no guarantee as to the efficacy of any proposed solutions on the community forums.
Apple disclaims any and all liability for the acts, omissions and conduct of any third parties in connection with or related to your use of the site. All postings and use of the content on this site are subject to the Apple Support Communities Terms of Use.